Elementary: Deja Vu All Over Again: Episode 18 Season 1 - TV Review

After a couple weeks away, Elementaryreturns with a new episode, and in some ways, a new Joan Watson. “Deja Vu All Over Again” is the beginning of her real detective work. Ms. Watson lands her first case!

The Players:

Episode Title: “Deja Vu All Over Again”

Sherlock (Miller) decides to break Joan (Liu) into the detective world by giving her a solo case. While she struggles to figure out whether or not a husband killed his wife, her friends are worried about her latest career move.

The Good:

Watson, Consulting Detective: We’ve seen glimpses of brilliance where Joan’s shown how cunning she can be when it comes to a case. Now she’s out there to prove herself, not only to Sherlock but her friends who are doubtful of her career path. She didn’t get everything right her first time out, but she’s manages to solve her case. Needless to say, it was quite the mic dropping moment for her.

Clever: It’s always refreshing to see the writers get creative with the murder mysteries. This episode had us bobbing in and out of two. One was cleverly disguised as a missing persons case, while the other was a straight murder. It was great seeing the suspect outwit the police and our detectives at the same time. There’s no point in writing a mystery if the killer’s not clever enough to throw everybody off.

He Believes in You: As the season progresses, Sherlock’s showing more affection for Joan’s detective efforts. He may help her with a case in order to get back on track. Or simply remind her that she’s almost late for a meet up with friends that she forgot about. They have a nice mentor-pupil relationship, and an ever-growing friendship.

Strong Direction: With every good story should come equally good direction. We want to tip our hats to director Jerry Levine, who did a fine job. Nice work.

The Decent:

Give Us Mycroft: This may not be much of a complaint but at this point surely everybody’s figured out Sherlock’s dad is a variation of Mycroft Holmes. We hope they reveal him at the end of the season in some way, shape or form. Or at least Moriarty.

Overall:

At this point, Elementary is a well done detective show that’s successfully cemented its own versions of the Sherlock Holmes series. This episode is one of a few that shows off this great change.